My MainBoss is running slow. How can I speed it up?
If MainBoss is running slowly, you must determine whether the slowdown happens on the computer where MainBoss is running or on the computer where SQL Server is running.
To determine if the problem is on a computer where MainBoss is running, check the speed of MainBoss on other computers. If a particular computer is slow but others aren't, it often means that the slow computer is running other software that keeps the computer too busy for MainBoss to run well. It's also possible that the computer has hardware problems, or that it requires more memory. Try quitting some of the programs that are running, and see if that helps.
It's also possible that your network is running slowly for some reason. Try using MainBoss on the same computer where SQL Server is running. If performance is significantly better there, your network may be having problems.
If you have slow performance on all the computers where MainBoss is running, that may mean a problem with SQL Server (or the computer where SQL Server is running). It may also indicate that your database needs attention in order to speed up the process of obtaining information. The rest of this web page suggests ways to improve the situation.
Update Database Statistics
Go to Administration | Database Management and click Update Database Statistics. This tells SQL Server to perform various tests and updates on your MainBoss database. (The tests may take some time.)
After SQL Server performs the tests, it will write a message at the top of the list of messages in MainBoss's Database Management window. Click on the line at the top of the message list, then look at the contents of the message in the bottom part of the MainBoss window. This gives the results of the tests; if something is going wrong and slowing down performance, the test results may help you identify the problem.
Running MainBoss on a Virtual Machine
In our experience, many sites choose to run MainBoss on a virtual machine, with SQL Server running on the same VM.
Unfortunately, sites often do not allocate enough memory for running the virtual machine. MainBoss isn't the sort of program that's constantly in use—people often use it for a few minutes, then go off to do other things—so the VM ends up swapping out. When someone wants to use MainBoss again, it takes quite some time for the VM to swap back in. Even if the VM itself doesn't swap out, SQL Server might do so...and SQL Server also takes quite some time to swap in after it has swapped out.
Instead of running MainBoss on a virtual machine, we recommend having the MainBoss database managed by an existing instance of SQL Server. This will avoid the swapping-out problem and provide much better performance.
Active Filter Date
Your active filter settings dictate which requests, work orders, and purchase orders are considered active. This affects MainBoss performance. For example, the more work orders that are considered active, the more work that MainBoss has to do when obtaining work order information.
You can change your active filter settings to reduce the amount of data that MainBoss has to look through. For more information, click here.
SQL Server Express
The free version of SQL Server (SQL Server Express) is fine for small maintenance departments, but it has a number of built-in limitations. In particular, Microsoft deliberately keeps performance below a certain level in order to "encourage" you to upgrade to a version you have to pay for. If you are using SQL Server Express and MainBoss performance is too slow, you may have outgrown Express's capabilities; in that case, you may need to pay for a higher-level version.
Cleaning Up Your SQL Server Database
From time to time, you should clean up your SQL Server database. Click here for more information.
